The Power of Luther Vandross

Multiple Grammy winner Luther Vandross was one of the foremost romantic singers of his generation.

A talented singer, song writer and producer, he will always be remembered for classics like Power of Love and Endless Love.

Luther Ronzoni Vandross was born on April 20 1951 in New York.
The youngest of four children, Vandross lost his father when he was 8 years old. He was brought up brought up by his mother on a housing project in lower Manhattan.

Vandross started playing the piano when he was three and grew up surrounded by music with his sister belonging to the dee wop group the Crests (They scored a minor hit with Sixteen Candles).While in high school Vandross became interested in the girl groups of the Motown era and would later cite Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick and Cissy Houston as major influences.

Vandross enrolled at the Western Michigan University but quit after two semesters to pursue his musical ambitions. In 1972 the Vandross-penned Everybody Rejoice featured in The Wiz on Broadway. But the singer’s first professional break came in 1974 when he caught the attention of David Bowie and was taken on as background vocalist and arranger for Bowie’s album Young Americans. Subsequently he went on tour with Bowie and thus laid the foundation of his budding career in music.

Vandross made a number of contacts through Bowie and went on to sing backup and arrange for Bette Midler, Chaka Khan, Carly Simon, Ringo Starr, Average White Band and Donna Summer among others. Between 1970 and 1981, he also sang commercial jingles and was a part of several bands including some formed by him but none of these proved commercially viable.

Vandross finally made his solo debut in 1981, after more than a decade in the industry. This delay was partly attributed to the emergence of disco, a genre far removed from Vandross’ romantic balladeering and partly because Vandross wanted complete creative control over the process which most labels were not agreeable to. Vandross finally rented a studio and started recording himself. When he presented the results to Epic Records they immediately offered him a contract.

Vandross’ debut album Never Too Much was released in 1981. A huge hit, it sold more than a million copies and broke into the Top Ten on the black pop charts. A string of platinum albums followed including For Ever, For Always, For Love and Busy Body. In fact, all of Vandross’ releases over the next 8 years topped the charts.

Vandross was also involved in production work.In 1982 he produced Cheryl Lynn’s album Instant Love and then went on to work with other artistes like Diana Ross, Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin.

Like his solo debut, Vandross’ first crossover hit took a while coming. But when it finally did in 1989 there was no looking back. Here and Now won him the first of 9 Grammys and hits like Power of Love, Endless Love (with Mariah Carey) and Your Secret Love made Vandross a permanent fixture on the pop charts for several years to come.

In 1998, Vandross left Epic to experiment with other labels. He released I Know with Virgin and Smooth Love (2000) with AMW before settling down with J Records in 2001. Through it he released Luther Vandross, Dance With My Father and Live 2003 at Radio City Music Hall, all of which did well commercially.

In April 2003 Vandross suffered a huge stroke that left him in a coma. He never fully recovered from it and was unable to attend the 2004 Grammys where he won 4 awards for Dance With My Father. Luther Vandross passed away on July 1, 2005.